Lu Zhiyao’s swordplay was light and graceful, yet his strikes were ruthlessly vicious, each blade aimed unerringly for the throat without a hint of hesitation.
He started with simple killing, but once warm blood stained his cheeks and soaked the hem of his robes, he could no longer suppress the manic craving within him.
A smile graced his lips, joy hung from his brow, his closed eyelashes quivered slightly, making his features appear even more stunning yet hauntingly beautiful.
His sword no longer moved with its previous lightness, instead carrying a silent, chaotic frenzy. It was impossible to predict his next move, yet the ferocity of his assault never diminished. Where opponents could previously parry a few strikes, the only thing they could offer at this point was their lives.
Li Ruoshui didn’t doubt for a second that if they dared approach him now, their fate would be no different from the fallen men in black.
The circle of encirclement gradually widened around Lu Zhiyao as its center, layering bodies circling him as if it’s a ritual. The black-clad men looked at each other, none dared to provoke the madman for the moment.
The fine cracks in the thin blade were soaked with threads of crimson, which he then casually flicked away, sprinkling the ground with speckles of blood like blooming plum blossoms. [1]
“We were having so much fun, mhm? Why run away?”
The way he played with the hilt, his uplifted tone—everything proclaimed Lu Zhiyao’s current delight.
He chuckled softly for a while, then, with a light tap of his toes, dashed across the blood-stained ground, charging toward the remaining black-clad men one by one.
Lu Feiyue and Jiang Nian shielded Li Ruoshui as they retreated, terrified of being caught in the crossfire.
Li Ruoshui was filled with regret—the kind of regret so intense that would make one want to swallow a whole bottle of pills.
She thought she was unleashing the ultimate powerhouse from the book. Who knew he was a demon of indiscriminate slaughter! (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
So that’s why Lu Feiyue always hesitated before asking him for help in the original book! It wasn’t out of shyness; it was fear! Why didn’t the damn author just say so?!
If she had known, she wouldn’t have eaten those mulberries. She suffered aching, sore teeth for nothing.
The situation now had completely reversed. They weren’t the ones being surrounded; the men in black were the ones being hunted.
The woman in white had long since left the center of the fray. She stood gripping her sword, seething with hatred. “That bastard’s martial arts have improved again! What a monster! He should have died from those injuries back then! I-it doesn’t matter now, I will send you to your grave today!”
Despite her harsh words, her eyes were filled with unadulterated fear. She hesitated to enter the fray, her sword held tight as she stepped back step by step.
Lu Feiyue leaped into action, freeing the women from their cages and pulling them near to safety away from the storm’s center, leaving only Li Ruoshui standing by herself.
Just then, a few black-clad men retreated directly in front of Li Ruoshui. Lu Zhiyao, sword in hand, was already charging toward them.
“Wait! Don’t hit friendlies!”
Li Ruoshui waved her hands frantically while backing away, hoping her shout might awaken some shred of ‘friendly-fire’ conscience in him.
A tall black-clad man fell before her eyes, revealing Lu Zhiyao behind him, his sword and robes stained red.
The sharp blade reflected his gently closed eyes and her own expression of regret and terror. Lu Zhiyao smiled slightly and thrust the sword forward.
In that lightning-fast moment, Li Ruoshui gritted her teeth and steadied herself, appearing as if ready to receive the blow.
Just as Lu Feiyue and Jiang Nian stared wide-eyed, about to rush to her rescue, the sword stopped at the center of Li Ruoshui’s brow.
The tip of the sword was extremely close, so close that she could feel the fine hairs on her skin pressing against the cold steel. The slightest movement would pierce her flesh.
F*ck!
Li Ruoshui’s heart hammered like thunder, her heart rate easily surpassing 120bpm. Her palms were slick with cold sweat and her legs felt weak.
A thousand thoughts raced through her mind, but mostly, she just wanted to thank her own powerful intuition.
The sword tip still hovered at her brow. Its owner spoke. “You’re not afraid?” (•_•?)
Terrified. I’ve never been so scared in my life. Her back was already soaked with cold sweat. Heaven knew how much effort it took to stop herself from running. Though, with how weak her legs felt, she might not even have the strength to move an inch.
However, she obviously couldn’t say that. Instead, she uttered the classic line used by female leads in novels. “I trust you.”
The world seemingly turned silent at this moment. The proud sun shone through the pear trees, casting shifting patterns of light and shadow, giving the fleeting illusion of summer.
After saying those words, Li Ruoshui couldn’t calm down and her heartbeat only accelerated, terrified that she had stepped on a landmine with how tense the atmosphere had become. Get faster updates on novelping . com.
Lu Zhiyao suddenly burst out laughing, his hand shaking with mirth, startling Li Ruoshui into tilting her head back slightly, afraid he might accidentally stab her.
“Although that’s a lie, I’ll forgive you.”
Without lingering, he turned and attacked the remaining black-clad men. But now his movements were clearly more methodical, less reckless, as if he was toying with his prey after a satisfying meal.
Seeing the change in his movements, the woman dressed in white’s eyes lit up. She wasn’t too far away and immediately brandished her sword and charged toward Li Ruoshui.
Li Ruoshui, lacking martial skills, couldn’t outrun her and was swiftly captured as a hostage.
“You beast! Your woman is in my hands! Surrender now if you know what’s good for you, or I’ll kill her!”
Everyone else looked at Lu Zhiyao. Everyone except Li Ruoshui. She understood this man all too well. If he stopped for this, she’d eat her own head.
Sure enough, under the woman in white’s triumphant gaze, Lu Zhiyao didn’t even give her a reaction, continuing to kill happily on his own.
“Big sister,” Li Ruoshui sighed wearily, tilting her neck to avoid the sword’s edge, “we’ve known each other for less than ten days. You’re overestimating my importance to him.”
“Impossible! You survived his sword…” The woman in white fell into self-doubt, then found a reasonable explanation for herself. “A beast is just a beast. He’s devoid of his emotion, colder than ice… and a lunatic who doesn’t even value his own life…”
While she was muttering to herself, Jiang Nian, noticing the opportunity at hand, jumped over behind her and instantly subdued her.
But her first reaction upon being captured wasn’t to call for help, but to command the others: “Don’t mind me! Kill him now! Chop him into a thousand pieces!”
Her willingness to sacrifice everything made one wonder just what Lu Zhiyao had done to make her hate him so much she’d willingly sacrifice herself to kill him.
Unfortunately for her, no one was that foolish. With their leader captured, why would they desperately fight a madman unless they had an actual deathwish?
Seeing everyone lay down their arms and retreat far away, the woman in white burned with fury but could do nothing except glare daggers at Lu Zhiyao.
Lu Zhiyao sauntered over, his hands still trembling with excitement. The way he smiled with closed eyes was like someone savoring the afterglow of a feast, satisfied and happy.
Li Ruoshui finally understood.
He was clearly a pleasure-seeking lunatic who acted entirely on whims and was utterly indifferent to his own life or death.
Lu Feiyue watched Lu Zhiyao approach and stepped sideways to shield Li Ruoshui from him. At the same time, she fired a signal flare into the sky to summon reinforcements from the Case Inspection Bureau.
She looked at the ten carriages in the yard, her brows tightly furrowed, the hand holding her sabre clenched so hard it turned white. “How many times have you done something like this?”
“Five years now. Lost count.” The woman in white didn’t care if she revealed any information. She found the very act of looking at Lu Zhiyao offensive and turned her gaze away. “Who’s behind this?”
“Someone a constable like you can’t afford to provoke.” Her eyes shifted as an idea came to mind, a smirk forming on her lips. “Kill him for me, and I’ll tell you.”
Jiang Nian glanced at Lu Zhiyao and frowned slightly as she found the woman’s obsession strangely intense. “Do you know Lord Lu?”
Hearing this, the woman in white’s eyes widened, shooting a thorny look his way with shock clearly visible in her gaze. “He has the surname Lu too?”
She scrutinized Lu Zhiyao from head to toe, as if trying to examine every single strand of his hair.
Staring intently at Lu Zhiyao’s appearance, she clicked her tongue and shook her head. “Hey, you bastard. What’s your father’s name?”
Before Lu Zhiyao could reply, Li Ruoshui spoke up. “What’s wrong? You want to recognize his father as your grandfather? The Lu family wouldn’t want a grandchild like you anyways.”
Stung by the retort, the woman in white fell silent, though the look she gave Lu Zhiyao grew even more complex.
Lu Feiyue and Li Ruoshui worked to lift the young women out from the carriage compartments. Seeing their dead, nearly corpse-like state, the drug used on them was clearly much stronger than what Li Ruoshui had experienced.
Li Ruoshui walked up to the woman in white. “Where’s the antidote?”
The woman looked up at Li Ruoshui, then thought of Lu Zhiyao’s earlier actions and smiled soundlessly. “Little sister, you kill him for me, and I’ll give you the antidote.”
???
Li Ruoshui directly reached into the woman’s bosom and started searching.
She really didn’t understand these villains. Even when tied up, they still had to talk tough.
“What are you doing?!”
Amid the woman in white’s exclamations, Li Ruoshui pulled out two porcelain bottles, one floral-patterned, one plain white. She uncorked them and sniffed—one has a fragrant scent and the other has a foul smell.
Li Ruoshui stood up and patted the woman’s shoulder. “You’re already tied up. You don’t need to continue to act tough.”
Li Ruoshui was all too familiar with the fragrant scent from the bottles. The opposite, foul-smelling one had to be the antidote.
The captured young women who had a good whiff of the antidote lay next to one another under the trees. They watched the white petals drift back and forth in the air, almost overwhelmed by the joy of narrowly escaping death.
Lu Zhiyao also sat under a tree. He wasn’t resting but was cleaning his sword while reminiscing about everything since meeting Li Ruoshui.
Running into Lu Feiyue and Jiang Nian could be explained. Perhaps she had known about their mission beforehand. The part about them falling in love later was utterly absurd. However, the matter of his name was the only thing that truly puzzled him.
He had never told his name to anyone before. The person who gave him that name had died the very same day. No matter how he racked his brain, he couldn’t find a reasonable explanation for why Li Ruoshui would know.
Could she have really dreamed of me? A prophetic dream of all things?
His hand, wiping down the sword, paused slightly. The smile on his lips faded a little.
The sound of her footsteps and the hem of her robes rustling against the ground reached his ears. For a moment, Lu Zhiyao actually found himself believing this explanation. Otherwise, there was simply no way to explain how she knew his name.
As he was lost in these thoughts, he suddenly felt someone gently tug the corner of his robe. A soft, gentle voice sounded beside him.
“Sir, thank you for saving me. Otherwise… I would likely have been sold to the Imperial City and left to a terrible fate…”
Lu Zhiyao tilted his head slightly toward the voice, his slightly red lips curving into a gentle arc. “You’re overthinking, miss. I wasn’t the one who saved you.”
This young woman was the one from the cage labeled ‘Imperial City,’ the very same one who had spotted the corner of Lu Zhiyao’s robe.
Before being loaded into the carriage, she had seen him. Heaven had not failed her prayers. This gentle, powerful, white-robed young master had truly come to save her.
He had slain those who harmed her in such a dominant manner. He soothed her fears with such a gentle smile.
“You saved me, sir. I have no way to repay you. If you are willing… I could take care of you for the rest of your life.”
She took his reply as humility, and her fondness for him grew even more.
Lu Zhiyao raised an eyebrow slightly, as if interested in this answer. “You want to take care of me too? Why? Is it because I look weak?”
The young woman’s gaze swept over his long eyelashes, straight nose, and red lips before she shyly lowered her head. “Because you saved me, sir.”
Lu Zhiyao sheathed his sword. His white robes seemed to glow in the sunlight. His long lashes cast a small shadow, further accentuating his captivating beauty. “Do you think I’m good-looking?”
The young woman only dared a quick glance up, her heart swelling with joy, though her words remained modest. “No, it’s not that. I value your character more. A gentle and kind person like you is naturally very attractive.”
“Ah.” Lu Zhiyao responded softly, then said with a soft smile, “Then the person you want to take care of isn’t me.”
The young woman was clearly flustered. She waved her hands hurriedly, regardless of whether he could see. “No, no, sir! I want to take care of you. You saved my life; you are my benefactor. Naturally, I should repay you with the rest of my life.”
“By that logic, all the women here would have to marry me, wouldn’t they?”
At this thought, Lu Zhiyao chuckled softly. “Wouldn’t that mean they’d have to marry Li Ruoshui too? She’s so timid, how could she handle ten wives?”
“…(⊙_⊙;)”
Hearing Lu Zhiyao’s words, Li Ruoshui, who had just walked over, halted in her tracks. She took a deep breath and turned to walk in the opposite direction.
Nope, nope she’s not going there.
She really, really, really, REALLY wanted to hit him.
Chapter Notes
[1] In case y’all didn’t know, plum blossom trees bloom in late winter / early spring and when they bloom they are a very vibrant red to pinkish hue. (Pictured below, national flower of Taiwan btw)
TLN: Happy thanksgiving y’all, hope yer having a good one. We’re having fun with this novel. Especially Cakiee……